The Cage (episode)
While investigating an 18-year-old distress call, Captain Pike is captured and tested by beings who can project powerfully realistic illusions. Summary on the bridge.]] The [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]] receives an old radio distress signal from planet Talos IV. A landing party led by Captain Pike discovers survivors from the crashed [[SS Columbia|SS Columbia]], which was on a scientific expedition for the American Continent Institute. Among the survivors is a beautiful woman called Vina. Distracted by the woman, Pike is captured by the Talosians and taken to an underground prison. It is revealed that the crash-site and the survivors, Vina excepted, were all powerful mental illusions made by the Talosians to trap the Enterprise and Captain Pike. The Talosians have severely weakened because they haved used their mental powers for so long. They want Captain Pike and Vina as breeding stock for a new, stronger race to repopulate the barren planet surface, which was ravaged by nuclear warfare. enjoy an illusory picnic outside Mojave.]] They try several illusions on Pike to make him interested in Vina, all based on Pike's memories. These include an unfortunate mission to Rigel VII and a pleasant picnic outside Pike's hometown of Mojave. When these illusions don't work, the Talosians also capture Number One and Yeoman Colt to give Pike a choice of women. .]] Pike discovers that strong primal emotions cancel out the Talosian mental powers. He uses this knowledge to take a weapon from one of the Talosians, and escapes with his crew to the surface. There, the Talosians confront Pike with their demands. Pike refuses to cooperate, but Vina (despite her attraction to Pike) decides to stay on the planet, because underneath the Talosian illusions, she is badly deformed from the crash of the Columbia. The Talosians agree to take care of Vina and release the other crew, providing Vina with an illusionary Captain Pike to keep her company. Memorable Quotes * "What the devil are you putting in that thing -- ice?" "Who wants a warm martini?" "You think I need one?" "Sometimes, a man will tell his bartender things he'll never tell his doctor." -- Pike and Dr. Boyce * "Now you're starting to sound like a doctor... bartender." "We both get the same kind of customers -- the living and the dying." -- Pike and Dr. Boyce Continuation Afterwards, the Federation imposed General Order 7 on the Talos system, preventing anyone from ever approaching the planet again under penalty of death. (TOS: "The Menagerie") :Several non-canon stories in comics and novels have chronicled continuations of this story: *Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: Issue *Star Trek Annual (DC volume 1) *Pocket TOS: "Legacy" Background Nitpicks *Pike says he's tired of "being responsible for 203 lives", but it is later revealed that Constitution class ships normally have crews of 400 Landmarks * This was the first ever episode of Star Trek produced. NBC rejected the pilot but made the extraordinary move to order a second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). Almost all footage of this episode was later reused in "The Menagerie Part I" and "Part II." * The first filmed scene from "The Cage" (and of Star Trek) -- the cut with Dr. Boyce and Captain Pike sharing a martini -- was filmed on Friday, 27 November 1964. Cast * Leonard Mudie, who has one line of dialogue as one of the Columbia survivors, was a veteran of dozens of films dating back to the 1930s. He was 85 when this sequence was filmed, and he died the next year. He is the oldest actor ever to appear on the original ''Star Trek'' and the first to pass away. * In one brief part of the first transporation sequence, the transporter chief's assistant is a man wearing glasses, but the scene changes and he appears without them. As far as is known, he is the only starfleet member ever so depicted until Kirk later acquires an antique pair in "Star Trek II." * Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Majel Barrett (Number One) are the only actors to appear in both this episode and the final episode "Turnabout Intruder". * Leonard Nimoy (Spock) is the only actor to appear in both this episode and the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before". * This is Leonard Nimoy's first Star Trek appearance. Malachi Throne (Voice of the Keeper) was also with him during his final Star Trek appearance, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Unification II". Story and production * The ape creature seen in the Talos zoo originally appeared in The Outer Limits episode "Fun and Games", looking quite a bit different, and was created by Janos Prohaska. The bird creature seen down the corridor also appears in an episode of that series. Several of Prohaska's creations would be modified and make appearances in episodic Star Trek. * An imprisoned species is seen only by its shadow -- the last cage in the zoo contains a large crab-like creature with huge claws. In Roddenberry's original conception, the Talosians were crab-like aliens. This would have been prohibitively expensive and probably unconvincing, so they became humanoids instead. * The Talosian seen down the corridor as Pike looks at all the imprisoned creatures was a midget. This gave the appearance of great length to what was actually a short, forced-perspective hallway. * The episode is difficult to reconcile with canon, as Spock smiles and uses several human expressions which he seldom did in the subsequent series and films such as "buzzing about down there". * Spock's cry of "Switch to rockets, we're blasting out!" is very anachronistic--there is no reference to rocket engines in the episodes to come. * Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson make the only contemporary presidential appearances in an original series episode, as images in the Talosian download of the ship's computer. Sets and props * The briefing room, transporter room and bridge in this segment are identical to the sets used in Where No Man Has Gone Before. * As opposed to the electronic clipboards used in the regular series, Pike uses a very 20th century metal clipboard. A television also appears in his quarters. Miscellaneous * Footage of the asteroids from the beginning of this episode is reused later in Mudd's Women and The Doomsday Machine. * The opening estabilishing shot of the ''Enterprise'' is reused in several early episodes: Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Corbomite Maneuver, Mudd's Women, The Man Trap and Charlie X. * CBS was approached first with Star Trek, but they passed on it for another sci-fi program called Lost in Space. * Although male voices were dubbed in for the Talosians, all the Talosian actors were actually women. * Throughout most of the first and second seasons, the "singing plant" sound heard on Talos IV would become the standard background noise on various planets. Beginning with "Spectre of the Gun", a different, warbly sound was used for a number of the remaining shows. Links and References Starring as young Lt. Spock.]] *Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike Guest Star *Susan Oliver as Vina Co-Starring *Leonard Nimoy as Mister Spock *M. Leigh Hudec (Majel Barrett) as Number One *John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce *Peter Duryea as José Tyler *Laurel Goodwin as J.M. Colt Uncredited *Meg Wyllie as The Keeper *Jon Lormer as Dr. Theodore Haskins *Clegg Hoyt as Pitcairn *Malachi Throne as The Keeper's voice *Mike Dugan as The Kaylar *Georgia Schmidt as First Talosian *Robert C. Johnson as First Talosian's voice *Serena Sande as Second Talosian *Barker as another Talosian *Adam Roarke as Garrison *Leonard Mudie as a Columbia survivor #2 (Unnamed humans) *Anthony Jochim as a Columbia survivor #3 *Ed Madden as the Enterprise geologist (USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel) *Robert Phillips as the space officer on Orion colony (Illusory people) *Joseph Mell as the trader on Orion colony *Janos Prohaska as the Anthropoid Ape/Humanoid Bird (Aliens) Production staff *Robert Herron - Pike's stunt double (credited as Bob Herron) *Frank da Vinci - Stunts *Penny Romans - Choreography for Susan Oliver's dance. References American Continent Institute; class M; ''Columbia'', SS; hyperdrive; laser; laser weapons; martini; Mojave; nitrogen; nuclear weapons; Orion; Orion slave girl; Orion colony; oxygen; radio; radio-interference distress call; Rigel; Rigel VII; Talos star group; Talos IV; Talosians; Talosian singing plant; Tango; time barrier; time warp factor; President of the United States; Vega; Vega colony; warp drive; yeoman. Cage, The de:Der Käfig fr:The Cage nl:The Cage sv:The Cage